A 63 year old homeless man, Jace Decker, 63, was beaten to death by Matthew Arguello and Ruben Rosales, two men who thought Decker was a registered sex offender.
The assault, which took place last month, left Decker in a Coma. He never recovered. The motive for the attack was that the two assailants mistook him for a sex offender and beat him mercilessly with their own hands. The attack underscores the risk people required to register are exposed to.
You are so correct !!
Hate Crime
The authorities will say ” Nothing to see here folks”. 99% of the time these acts of violence against a registered citizen are not done by the accuser or even their family, rather some random person who is looking for an excuse to hurt someone and thinking no one will have sympathy for a sex offender. I read a story once of a kid who had to leave all his friend and become home schooled because kids at school beat him up every day for being the kid of the monster. I have seen many comments over the months from people on here saying wait till it happens to a judges or law makers kid being on the registry but I can tell you, they would most likely pull some strings to sideline the guidelines.
Disgusting
Where is the States Attorney’s statement about justice or investigation in to this matter?
The Registry also brings potential harm to family members of an offender. The impact on the children of an offender can be catastrophic. The Registry is punishment for innocent family members. Those that say and believe that the Registry is not punishment and also feel it is protecting children against an offender, is badly mis-informed. There are people on the Registry that are innocent and ended up found guilty by a court of law or by taking a Plea Deal. Accuser’s don’t always tell the truth. The Registry is a good tool for law enforcement but serves no purpose for the public to have this information. Until people start thinking clearly on the subject of the Registry, tragedy such as this article talks about can easily happen.
@ DC:
Agree with all but your statement that the registry is a good tool for law enforcement.
The registry has yet to be a factor in the investigation of one single crime outside of registry or parole/probation violations. Even in the few and far between occasions where registrants do commit another offense (sexual or otherwise), the accused’s registry status is never known until after identification or arrest. That it is the first thing consulted when certain crimes are reported is a fairly open secret, but to date has never provided a lead leading to conviction (based on lack of reporting; we can assume it would be trumpeted by the press if it ever happened).
It’s arguably a sentencing issue in the event of a separate conviction, but unnecessary as a person’s criminal record would be discovered in the course of routine prosecution. It’s simply absurd to presume LE can’t find convicted offenders without the registry when they need or want to; there are numerous other means to do so (POs, utility companies, employers, etc.).
The only reason LE likes the registry is because it is a means to solicit larger state and federal grants to maintain it. That’s why many jurisdictions (Florida, in particular) continue to register dead, incarcerated, and those who have left the area. They will never explain how such registrants are supposedly a threat to their neighborhoods, nor is such an explanation possible. All are listed as “compliant” because it is a grant requirement.
The dead registrants in particular violate their own laws I would think. For one, registration is for life and by the letter of the law should end when one dies. For another, it stands to reason that they’re not reporting in person at whatever interval to verify that they are in fact still dead, and it stands to reason that there are no warrants for their arrest for failure to update (another compliance requirement for grants). And finally, the dead aren’t a threat to anyone, so registering them doesn’t warn of potential threats, the registry’s supposed purpose.
Yes and whenever I use to get pulled over for some minor infraction and tell the officer I use to work in law enforcement they would tell me to stay put and if everything comes back clean I can be on my way without a ticket. When they come back after finding out I am registered, their friendly demeanor changes and they lead with ” Well now we know why you are no longer in law enforcement” and I end up with like 9 tickets. I have always taken the tickets to court and got them tossed but just shows to them (Law enforcement) we are sub-humans who should be put down. Almost every encounter I have had with Law enforcement since being on the registry has started off pleasant and professional until they run my name then they go from Dr. Jykle to Mister Hyde
What you are saying is Police Officers treat other officers and X officers as if they are above the law?? Until they find out they are a Registered Offender??And then you go in front of a judge and get the tickets thrown out?? Is it any wonder we get so upset with laws and law enforcement. We cannot be a lawless society BUT we can keep trying to make laws more effective and more fitting to the crime. We can only hope we have good and honest people enforcing the laws.
Not sure if you or a family member is on the registry but if you are going to fight with others on the registry, we will never get anywhere with our cause. You complaint should be aimed at those opposing our existence, not those in the same boat as you or your loved one.
Many officers assume fellow officers and former officers to be law-abiding. But registry status would suggest otherwise. Is this hard to understand?
Where my husband is incarcerated, one of the officers told me that there is a whole dorm with nothing but incarcerated judges, law enforcement officials, and former prison guards.
After 26 years in Law Enforcement and now working to get the laws on Sex Offenders changed let me advise you of the following: Law Enforcement does not need the Sex Offender Registry they already have all the information they need from other sources, so the registry does nothing for L.E. It does however cost them money and time keeping it uptodate and doing home checks. This time and money could be better spent on many other things. But those still on the job will not admit it. The SOR is a big waist of time. If we have to have one it should only be those people who are at high risk to reoffend, using a risk assement.
This is why I moved from a small city where the cops were bored and checked on me every time they felt like it, in addition to the Sheriffs deputies when it was their time. I moved away from that nonsense to one of the largest counties in the area where I get checked on once a year for 5 minutes to verify I am me and my house is where I am. Green eggs and ham.
* And yes I sold my house to get the heck out of where I was living. They would be waiting for me in the morning sitting in my driveway on the way to work, didn’t matter if I was going to be late to work, so I had to learn to leave for work 20 extra minutes in case I was detained in my own driveway for no reason for EXTRA checks by city police. I guess they won, they wanted me out of “Their” city.
The registry is worse than useless. It’s dangerous to children. While everyone is sweating people on the registry they aren’t looking where the real danger is.
Same old tactic of Hitler in Nazi Germany. Register people in the name of “safety”, make them not human, then use them as Guinea pigs for horrific experiments and then dump them in mass graves.
….And that’s a hate crime. Curious to see how this actually plays out.
Ben being a registrant isn’t a protected class but it should bee seeing how the government not only paints a target on our backs but also gives vigilantes GPS directions as to where to aim so I doubt there will be any special circumstance charges to go along with whatever misdemeanor the state prosecutor decides to charge them with but I guess since the murdered gentleman wasn’t a registrant the charges may be more serious than if he had been
To be a hate crime it has to be a protected class such as race, religion, LGBQ etc. There will be charges for murder but there is no statue stating killing someone on the registry is a hate crime. It happens all the time and no extra charges are applied.
The Florida Uniform Crime Reporting Program defines Hate Crime as a committed or attempted criminal act by any person or group of persons against a person or the property of another person or group, which in any way constitutes an expression of hatred toward the victim because of his/her personal characteristics. Personal characteristics include:
•race/color
•gender/gender identity
•religion
•ethnicity/ancestry/national origin
•sexual orientation
•advanced age
•mental/physical disability
•homeless status
due to the fact this man was homeless it will be interesting to see if this is labeled as a Hate Crime.
They need to update this listing to include abuse of a registered citizen as a hate crime. When a citizen is forced into a subclass and that subclass is demonized and given less rights they are by default a target of bullying and hate attacks from vagilities and other mentally unstable individuals.
Since this is an assigned status is even now being listed on US passports then it is clearly an official designation and so-called “Registered Sex Offenders” aka RSO should be included in protected groups.
If a citizen is harassed, abused, or physically attacked even KILLED by someone who received this information from the United States government (online SO registries) then the government has assisted In the commission of a hate crime against the registered citizen!
PERIOD
Nailed it. I would add that this is deliberate though.